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Friday, January 6

We Have a History: Making Backstory Work for You

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Along with adverbs and telling, I think backstory completes the unholy trinity of writing. So much so that agent and writing guru Donald Maass advises you cut any backstory in the first 50 pages. But backstory has its uses, and sometimes, it's critical to know that history.

Even if it's not critical for the reader to know it.

In some genres it's more of an issue. Fantasy, science fiction, historical--any genre where the past and the history of that past strongly affects the current plot and the motivations of the characters. Doubly so if the antagonist is the one with the past that's come back to haunt someone, since you don't always see the antagonist's POV.
My current WIP has a major event that happened decades ago, but this event is the trigger for all the present-day plot events in the story. I knew basically what had happened in the past, but I focused more on what my protagonists were doing/uncovering and chose what parts of the antagonist's plot to use based on them, not what had actually happened.

By the time I was done, I wasn't happy. The mystery part wasn't as strong as I knew it could be, because I hadn't spent enough time on the backstory. If you looked too closely at the plot, things didn't quite line up, and questions were left hanging. The more you thought about the story, the weaker the story got. Not a good thing.

So I went back and wrote the backstory.

I drafted a rough synopsis that described that past event and what happened. Why the characters did what they did and the ramifications of those actions. When I was done, I did the same thing with my antagonist. Then, I did it with all my major and supporting characters who were involved in it, no matter peripherally. (One character was nine years old when this happened, but after doing this, I realized the event had a profound affect on who he was that made his character much richer and more interesting)

That's a lot of summarizing and a lot of backstory, but afterward, I knew how all the pieces fit and those plot events that felt shaky could now be made solid. I knew why folks did what they did in the present day plot, even if they weren't the POV character. I had secrets non-POV characters wanted to avoid, which gave me all kinds of great fodder to use to up the mystery, the tension, and use for plot.

I made this event matter to the present day world and those who lived in it. It wasn't just "something that happened once" anymore.

If you're facing a story with lots of history, try writing out that history. Ask yourself:

What happened in the past and why?

It seems simple, but the act of writing it down forces you to make decisions about things you might not have realized weren't clear. It'll also help you spot any holes or weak logic. Try to go down three levels.

For example, Level 1: Why are they doing the obvious thing? (the plot reason most likely) Level 2: What made them do that thing? (probably the motivating factor from the backstory) Level 3: What made them do that thing? (a solid reason for this to happen at all. And the most likely culprit of plots that feel a little flimsy when thought about or questioned).

How does it affect the current plotline?

Knowing this can help you decide what aspects of your backstory to reveal to the readers. The bits that actually matter, not the full history that doesn't advance the story.

Were any of the current characters involved?

If so, what was their role? How do they feel about it now? How does it motivate their actions and choices now? This will help make them real people with real motives, even if they're not major players in the story. It'll also give the sense that things are going on in the world and it's not all about your main characters. Supporting players have lives, even when off screen.

How do the POV characters feel about it?

If your POV characters weren't involved (or don't know about it) odds are they're trying to figure it out in some way. That might even be the goal of the book or a subplot. What do they know? What do they think they know, but have wrong? What parts are they trying to solve, but uncover something totally unexpected? Knowing the backstory can help you plot twists and turns and surprise the reader in ways that make sense and feel grounded. It'll also make it easier for you to plot when, where, and how they discover information, especially if other characters hold the key to any of that information. You'll know exactly who knows what, why they may or may not talk about, and how badly they'd want to keep (or reveal) that knowledge.

Backstory gets a bad rap, but when you think about it, it's the motivating factor behind your characters, and characters are what drives your story. You need the backstory to create rich and proactive characters. So why not write it all on its own? It keeps it out of the story, allows you to explore the history that captured your interest, and helps you crafts a story and characters with depth.

How much does backstory affect your current WIP? How much have you put into the story? Do you feel it's too much? Too little? Have you tried writing it out separately?

Go step-by-step through revising character and character-related issues, such as two-dimensional characters, inconsistent points of view, too-much backstory, stale dialogue, didactic internalization, and lack of voice. Learn how to analyze your draft, spot any problems or weak areas, and fix those problems.

With clear and easy-to-understand examples, Fixing Your Character & Point-of-View Problems offers five self-guided workshops that target the common issues that make readers stop reading. It will help you:

Flesh out weak characters and build strong character arcs

Find the right amount of backstory to enhance, not bog down, your story

Determine the best point(s) of view and how to use them to your advantage

Eliminate empty dialogue and rambling internalization

Develop character voices and craft unique, individual characters

Fixing Your Character & Point-of-View Problems starts every workshop with an analysis to pinpoint problem areas and offers multiple revision options in each area. You choose the options that best fit your writing process. It's an easy-to-follow guide to crafting compelling characters, solid points of view, and strong character voices readers will love.

Janice Hardy is the award-winning author of the teen fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, including The Shifter, Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. The Shifter, was chosen for the 2014 list of "Ten Books All Young Georgians Should Read" from the Georgia Center for the Book.

21 comments:

Thanks Janice, I'm going to try this. My hero has a huge backstory that totally informs what he's doing in the plot and I've been worried I'm not revealing things at the right time or that it won't hold up to scrutiny. Will try this...

I have been working on my NaNoWriMo 1st draft of around 70,000 words using beat-sheets a la "Nail Your Novel" by Roz Morris.

That has shown that there is far too much backstory in the first two chapters, which I can cut drastically but show backstory throughout the work showing (not telling) through the thoughts of FMC and her and other characters' words and actions. Little pieces can now be placed quite naturally throughout the story without it being an overwhelming amount of information.

But I agree with you and have written the backstory of all characters down. If it needs to be used directly in the next draft, then it can be but, by having a separate Character's Backstory doc, nothing vital will be forgotten and much of that information helps greatly with characterisation and 'fleshing out'.

I am a huge fan of writing the sort of novels where there was this big, awful event in the main character's (and most of the supporting characters) past that they are currently trying to come to grips with. Sometimes it's just conflict keeping them from being who they want to be, and sometimes it effects the story world.

Like you, in the beginning I never figured out the details, but quickly realized it's hard to come up with that stuff on the fly and have it really matter. So I have long backstories now, that mostly don't make it into the book, but help me write it.

The question you ask yourself are pure gold. I usually sort of wing how to use this wealth of information and sometimes it turns out okay, and sometimes not. This will be extremely helpful! Thanks!

One WIP jumps back and forth between three times, the present day, the Thursday evening before, and a party 6 months previous.

Another WIP is devoid of all history except for a 1 paragraph 'summary'. There may be tiny mentions thrown in, but the character doesn't dwell on the past at all. It happened, nothing can be changed, so we're moving on, that kind of attitude.

I have written backstory out in a separate file for more complicated works. I agree, doing that really helps keep all the facts straight.

Totally agree with this advice. I am working on a small town piece with lots of side characters and motivations. I had to do exactly what you did to make it all come together. But it's all the tiny attention to detail that makes the story richer, more believable. This is, I think, one of those major writer realizations that really improve your craft. Not everything you write will or even should be in the final manuscript, but it still needed to be written.

My WIP does not have a backstory as such, but it does cover a period of fifty years. Comments I received on my first draft suggested that it needed more depth and the suggestion that I write profiles of each of the main characters and what happens to them during their lives and especially at those points where they cross paths. This forces decisions to be made on how they change over time - particularly the age they are at key plot points. You gain considerable insight into each of them and may help determine how they will react.

Backstory is the run up to the edge between two tall buildings. The story is the leap across. Without that run there is no energy, no momentum to get across and it falls. Flat.

The trick is to introduce backstory through current revelation. The reader learns new information with the character and as they connect the pieces they know with the new they bring it out, not directly but through implication. Which is how real people tend to handle the back stories of their own real world drama's (you know x from years ago, they did y and now we are able to determine z).

My WIP doesn't have a lot of backstories. I seem to imply a lot with "Noodle Incidents" (hmm, that should be an article). I have a little too much exposition with the magic system though, but we don't receive a lot of back-story on the characters until near the end.

I recently read a book ("Virals" by Kathy Reichs. Anyone read it?) which had so much back-story during the beginning, I steamed about it and would have abandoned the book if I got it from the library.

Fortunately, it gets better once it's out of the way and the pace picks up, but the present tense exposition with the past tense scenes almost killed it for me. I'm still considering ways how the backstory could've been handled better.

I've been in love with back-story ever since I read Watership Down, with all that juicy mythology bleeding into the present.

I do like your point about how backstory affects everyone, not just the MC. I've recently realized I need to work on motivation for my secondary characters. This sounds like an excellent way to go about it.

Great post, and so true! It's always bizarre how much authority my writing takes on once I've actually described the backstory for myself. Everything takes on the tint of the backstory.

I keep a funny little file where I jot down backstory as I discover it, and as the puzzle pieces accumulate, I automatically start connecting them. This has helped me a LOT--having all the pieces in one place keeps me consistent even before I know exactly how they relate.

Thank you for this post Janice. You do have a way of making even the basic things much more clear. I did a brief profile on my main character, but never really anything on the backstory for the main event of my protag's "issue" or the others that may have been there. I am going to try this. I can already feel a revelation coming on!

My biggest problem with backstory is that I have a hard time deciding what should be backstory and what should be story. I can't decide if it's cheating to start when my main character has already been through a lot that has made her who she is, or if I should start from the beginning and show how she became who she is, even though that's not where the big part of the story is. Sadly, this is the sort of thing that keeps me up at night.

Allison, today's (Mon, Jan 9th) post might help with that. Knowing where to start usually goes hand in hand with knowing where you're ending. What's the core conflict of your novel? The big problem your protag is trying to solve? Once you know that, you can look back to the moment when your protag first uncovers that problems. You typically start right about there.

The backstory might be necessary, or it might be the things that happened that made your character who they are. If that backstory doesn't directly affect and move the plot, odds are it can stay in the back and not wind up in the story.

Great Post! In one of my WIP(The one I work on when I need a break from the other) one of my MC has a lot of backstory that all ends up connecting and explaining a lot. I often find myself caught up in this subplot so much that I lose track of the main idea of the overall story.

I love that you have a "break WIP." That's a great idea. It'll be fun to see how that one ends up--is the backstory a critical subplot, or is it something to need to figure out so you can then write the full story?